This is a zine dedicated to black metal written by a follower of the left hand path, This zine has been around in a different format for a while and I have decided to make an edition for www.blogger.com, for more information email occultblackmetalzine@yahoo.com, new albums as well as classic albums will be reviewed on here as long as their good quality black metal,

Monday, January 13, 2014

Nevaloth/The Antagonist/2013 Full Length Review

Nevaloth are a band from Slovakia that plays a very progressive form of black metal and this is a review of their self released 2013 album "The Antagonist".

The album starts out with a very distorted sounding intro which also has some am radio noises in the background along with some tribal style beats as well as some industrial and then the music goes into a more blackened death metal sound along with a mixture of screams and growls as well as some blast beats and the music also slows down at times and adds in synths.

When the guitar solos are added in they bring melody in the atmospheric chaos this music generates and the album also has a good amount of avant garde and classical music influences which are also mixed in with the brutal parts in certain sections of the album and the bass guitars enhance the progressive nature of the music.

As the album progresses industrial and experimental elements return at times while the main focus is the more heavy, brutal and progressive parts and the music also starts getting more dark and while the focus is mainly on black metal there is still a great amount of death metal influences on the record as well a good amount of 90s and 70s style prog/psych rock being added in while also having a more modern twist to it and when acoustic guitars are brought in briefly they enhance the progressive and tragic qualities of the music and on a couple of songs melodic vocals are brought in while they still have a rough elements to them.

Nevaloth show a lot of talent and diversity with their music they take in traditional and black metal influences and build on it by adding in brutal death metal, symphonic, progressive rock and classical to create a sound that is very original and you can hear a lot of talent and skill being utilized in the musical instruments.

Song lyrics cover philosophical and occult themes along with some of the writings of Aliester Crowley, John Milton, William Blake and Max Striner, while the production has a very strong, powerful, heavy and professional sound for being a self released recording where you can hear all of the musical instruments that are present on this album.

In my opinion Nevaloth are a very great and original sounding progressive black metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Moment Of Apostasy" "Per Aspera Ad Astra" "Lightbearer Empire" and "Herostratic Fire". 9 out of 10.